SEDIBENG.-  Gone are the days when Bafana-Bafana was the pride of our country, that is since the famous victory in 1996 AFCON.

When South Africa was re-admitted to the internal sporting arena in 1992, Bafana Bafana was the pride of our nation. However, so much has changed and Bafana Bafana is no longer the same, with everyone being handed call-ups like SASSA grants. When I close my eye, I can still recall how the nation was happy after Bafana Bafana’s victory against Tunisia in the final of AFCON at the packed FNB Stadium. Not only that, when Bafana Bafana qualified for the France FIFA World Cup in 1998, there was hope for South African football.

Back to my initial topic, recently the same can not be said about Bafana Bafana as we have become the world’s laughing stock. Banyana-Banyana is the only national teams that has restored our pride as the nation. Their victory for the African’s Women Cup of Nation’s and qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup was the cheery on top. This is the best performing national team compared to the rest of other national teams, specifically your Bafana Bafana team. It is very disappointing because this country has the best resources to compete against the best in the world. We proved this in the past, against powerhouse in the world when we played international friendly matches.

But how things have changed since then!

The selection of our national teams has a lot much to be desired when taking into consideration the talent this country is blessed with. We are nothing but a laughing stock to other football nations. We have no excuse as a country not to compete in the World Cup or African Cup or the African Nations Cup. The reality is that, we have no more pride and respect for wearing that Bafana-Bafana jersey both as supporters and as players like it used to be the case in the past. It is very rare nowadays to see a supporter wearing a Bafana Bafana jersey in the streets like it used to be the case in the past. In the past, wearing that Bafana Bafana jersey came with pride unlike today when we wear it for the sake of doing so.

The question is, what went wrong with our beloved senior national team, to the point when we don’t even remember when was the last time they played or when they will be playing? It is no more important for soccer fans to wear that Bafana Bafana jersey because it has no value anymore.

The next question will be, what do we need to do to restore the pride of our beloved Bafana Bafana team, Who can be tasked with this responsibility to restore the pride of our nation? Our football needs somebody with “balls” to take our football to the right direction.

The truth is that, the current leadership is not taking us anywhere because we are like a stationary bus.